facultyexplore advaya’s teachers
Explore advaya's faculty of teachers, scientists, practitioners, philosophers and storytellers, who share multidimensional, local and diverse narratives from across the world.
Bayo Akomolafe
Sophie Strand
Satish Kumar
Vandana Shiva
Veronica Strang
Manda Scott
Beloved Sara Zaltash
David Abram
Dr Andreas Weber
David Whyte
Helena Norberg-Hodge
Dr. Predrag Slijepcevic
Charles Eisenstein
Aisha Paris Smith
Brontë Velez
Martin Bidartondo
Martin Bidartondo works at the Department of Life Sciences, Imperial College London. He is also an Honorary Research Associate at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. Martin does research in Mycology, Environmental Science, Evolutionary Biology and Ecology.
Martin works on the ecology and evolution of mycorrhizas, one of the dominant symbioses of terrestrial ecosystems. The systems that he has studied include arbuscular, ectomycorrhizal, monotropoid and orchid mycorrhizas, and the mycorrhiza-like associations of bryophytes. He is an Honorary Research Associate at he Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew.
Following his ground-breaking research on the evolutionary ecology of the diverse plants that cheat mycorrhizal mutualisms, his team has investigated: 1) the mycorrhizal ecology of heathlands first revealing the mechanisms of tree invasions and then uncovering nutritional links among vascular plants, fungi and non-vascular plants, 2) the environmental drivers of forest mycorrhizas at large scales, revealing the impacts of nitrogen pollution across European forests in collaboration with ICP Forests, and 3) the ecology and evolution of their newly discovered, yet ancient and globally-widespread, symbioses between lineages of plants and fungi.
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Secrets of the fungi and the forests
This panel discussion was held at the advaya event Secrets of the Forests: Lives Within & Beyond the Trees, with Alan Rayner, Kay Haw & Martin Bidartondo.
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Fungi and plants working together
This talk was given at the advaya event Secrets of the Forests: Lives Within & Beyond the Trees, with Alan Rayner, Kay Haw & Martin Bidartondo. We are learning fast about the ancient and intimate links among living plants and fungi. It turns out that most plants do not have roots, they have fungus-roots instead. From the tiny first land plants, to today’s huge forests, fungi have always been crucial facilitators. Their essential networks are underground, so their study has been largely out of sight and out of mind. However, we now know that these widespread fungal-plant interactions control nutrient and carbon cycles in our rapidly changing planet. Come to learn about mutualism, cheating and pollution in the world of fungi and plants.